A glimpse of election year politics

I was literally dragged by the farmers to a canal which needed immediate digging. The local BNP leaders were opposing the sitting BNP MP and backing another prospective candidate of the ruling party due to some internal feud. The sitting MP had determined not to excavate the canal which he thought could help his opponent. In absence of effective local self-government, the MPs have become virtually the chief executives of the constituencies. The last amon crop perished as the silted lower Ichakhali canal could not drain the heavy rain water away in time.

After promising to write for them, I casually asked an elderly farmer, what did he think of the caretaker government? He retorted, rather impatiently: "Will the caretaker government dig the canal for us?" I instantly realised how remote many "national issues" were from most of the people. Jostling among the prospective party candidates was hurting the farmers. I could see the lines of worry on their faces and the visit had convinced me that digging of this canal and many more public utility projects must be kept above inter and intra-party bickering. The four affected unions of Mirsarai upazilla comprising 50,000 people would vote for anybody who excavates the crop-saving canal for them.

There are few days left for any major changes in our system. If changes have to come anyway, we might as well think of going back to the presidential system with bicameral legislature and independent judiciary in the American style. Without the minimum culture of patience and tolerance, the Westminster democracy is severely handicapped in Bangladesh. With a party president and with unicameral legislature, the unitary government is the worst kind of dictatorship. Concentration of power in the capital Dhaka is not the fault of the ruling alliance but the system fault of our constitution.

It must be decentralised to more power centres so that politics can thrive on the banks of canals and mud roads where most of our people live. Nibbling at the edges of reform will not help. The rural people are getting increasingly disillusioned about the Dhaka-centric politics. Upazilla elections should become a national agenda and must be held within the first year of the parliamentary elections so that newly elected MPs do not have enough time to gang up against it. One vote in five years for a unicameral parliament to form a steel-framed unitary government is not democracy -- it is cheating by constitution. Both the election commission and caretaker government reforms are eyewash, at the most, beating about the bush.

As the opposition do not have to raise taxes, provide services, maintain law and order, and adjust prices of essentials, they could well be very generous, harping all the time on the needs and wishes of the people. If they had been in the parliament and grilling the weaknesses of the government, the people would have got at least a trickle of a better deal. If the watchman was not on duty when the vault of the people (as they say) is looted, the watchman is also an accomplice and must be tried for the crime. Drawing pay without duty may not be illegal because the lawmakers have done it, but it is utterly immoral and tantamount to defrauding the people. First thing first, excuses can come later, they should return all the cash and kind that they have drawn for duties while absenting themselves from parliament.

There have been failings of the government, some of which even the sitting ministers have gracefully accepted. But I fail to perceive how the BNP which struggled fearlessly and uncompromisingly for years to remove a military dictator, adopted parliamentary system as per wishes of the people, and finally went for the caretaker system to make the elections impartial and transparent could be compared with Hitler or Louis XIV. There are many instances where elected government could not live up to the wishes or promises. But comparing them with despotic monarchs and ruthless dictators is unkind and distorting facts.

The opposition politics remain stuck in the non-cooperation strategy of colonial days. People by now are tired of "gadi charo" (quit power) politics. Scepticism has not helped the opposition. The government and mandate is not permanent. Time has come to pronounce judgement on the performance of the government as well as the opposition. Resignation from the parliament by the opposition in the dying days may well boomerang. Most people don't know the merits and demerits of the caretaker government. Power and diesel, law and order, and price of essentials are the real politics in Bangladesh. It is not the caretaker government, but the constitution itself which needs to be redrawn to decentralize power so that the people have more say in their affairs.

Prospective candidates have started visiting the electorate more frequently than during the last four years. The alliance government must be in high gear for the election and busy drafting a customary election year budget. Is there enough time left for the changes? Let the political parties and alliances make these as election issues. If people vote for them it will be a referendum which must be implemented immediately. If not, please don't call the election bad -- work on the people for another five years. For God's sake, do politics but avoid anti people hartals.

The author is a freelancer contributor to The Daily Star.